I dare you to talk to him
by Karlyh23
Summary: ONE- SHOT Steroline! Caroline get's dared to talk to the mysterious loner guy in school. aka Stefan


"I dare you to talk to him."

Those words were playing in Caroline's mind as she walked. She and Elena had been bored in their English class and, as a result, had decided to play truth or dare.

Things had started out the way they usually did; they demanded to know each other's crushes and dared each other to do stupid things such as calling a random

person and pretending to be drunk or daring the other to allow them to borrow an outfit from the other's closet. But then Elena had decided that their game was a tad

too boring and gave the blonde a more 'challenging dare'. She had dared Caroline to talk to the school loner, Stefan. That was when Caroline decided that Elena was

either insane or wished for Caroline's death so that she could have Caroline's prized hand bag.

Stefan was unlike other loners. The brunet wasn't picked on or mocked. In fact most people in the school went out of their way to avoid him. And he was actually

rather attractive in Caroline opinion, at least when he wasn't terrifying people. See Stefan was known to be rather violent. It was rumored that he had put two boys in

the hospital for simply asking him for a pencil. And he had broken a boy's nose by the school's dumpster. She knew that for a fact because she had seen it firsthand.

But Elena did not seem to consider any of that when she dared Caroline to talk to him. She said that he was probably like that cute, misunderstood guy in that movie

that was based off of The Taming of the Shrew. Easy to say when she wasn't the one that had to go up to the male.

Maybe Caroline was just as crazy as her friend. After all, she was going along with the dare and practically asking for an early death. But the teen knew that if she

backed out of doing this then Elena would never forget it and would remind her every day for the rest of their lives.

So that was why Caroline was walking to the edge of the school grounds where Stefan allegedly spent his lunches with Elena watching her from a distance to make

sure that the blonde would not chicken out. From what she had heard, the guy always sat at the end of the yard under a tree whenever he had a spare or lunch. It

was like the place was his own personal cloister or something.

The actual dare was that Caroline had to go up to him and talk to him for at least one full minute. How she was going to managed that, the blonde had no idea. And

she had a 4.0 GPA. After all, not only was the guy known for having a temper and preferring solitude to people, but he was also infamous for being a man of few

words. It was hard for even teachers to extract a sentence that was more than four words from the brunet.

Ok, she was getting close to the tree now. Her nerves sky rocketed. You can do this, she attempted to assure herself, five minutes from now this will be over. It'll be

ok. Maybe he'll magically be in a good mood and not feel the urge to break her neck. Ah who was she kidding? This was so not going to go over well. Well, at least

her best friend couldn't call her a coward.

She was almost at the spot now and could see the outline of his body leaning against the large plant. Perhaps she could just stand quietly next to the tree so that it

looked like she was talking to him. Yeah, that sounded like a good idea.

At that moment her phone went off. Dang it! There went that idea. Her breath hitched as the brunet turned to look at her. "Umm, hi." Caroline said as she reached

into her pocket to silence the loud device. Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit. She was so dead. He just continued to stare. "So I'm Caroline." No response. Why was he

acting so mediocre? Then again, she should be grateful that he wasn't torturing her yet. Oh right, she had to start her countdown. She discreetly gazed down at her

watch, mentally subtracting five seconds from the time because of the time it took to introduce herself. "You might not have seen me around before she said.

His eyes narrowed slightly. "What are you doing here?"

If she wasn't so scared for her life, the blonde might have thought that his voice sounded husky. But currently the sound of his voice was the last thing on her mind.

Why was time going by so freaking slowly? "Well, I've noticed you before and thought I might as well introduce myself." Fifty seconds left…

"Don't lie to me."

She froze. How should she respond? He could obviously tell if she wasn't telling the truth, but telling him honestly why she was here did not seem like a very good

option either. After thinking it over, she decided that the latter option was probably the smartest. Forty seconds. "I was dared by Elena to talk to you for at least one

minute. She's watching us by the bike racks."

His jade eyes moved to the brunettes location, before moving back to the blonde. "Go."

"W-what?" She stuttered.

"Leave," he commanded.

"B-but the dare-" If she left now Elena was still going to mock her for being scared. And she really didn't want that to happen…

"I don't care. Go." His eyes narrowed in a 'don't make me repeat myself again' sort of way.

Oh no she wasn't. Her own eyes narrowed. She had made it this far, there was no way she was going to back out now. Thirty seconds. "No." Maybe she was being

suicidal to refuse the big oaf's request, but she was not going to get called a coward after she already confronted him.

His eyes widened a fraction of a millimetre before they went down again. "No?" He straightened.

Ok, her resolve was beginning to fade again. No, she only had half a minute left. She could do this; she just had to be strong. "I'm staying until a full minute is up. So

you are just going to have to suck it up and deal with me until that time ok?" To further prove her point, she strode forward and plopped down beside him. Maybe she

did have a death wish after all.

"So," what to talk about. How does one talk to a psycho anyways? "What's up?" Silence. "Ok, umm, any hobbies?" He seemed intent on ignoring her. "Why are you

always so quiet?"

She had expected him to stay silent, but he spoke up. "Most things I hear aren't worthy of a response."

Ok progress. "Why do things have to be worthy?" She asked him.

"You ask too many questions." He replied cooly.

"And you don't give enough answers," she remarked. By now she was intrigued by the brown haired male and wanted to learn more about him. "Come on. Answering

me wouldn't be that bad. And It might make time go by faster than if you just sat here listening to me talk-"

"You're annoying."

He did not just go there. Stay calm girl. Breath in, breath out. She forced a smile. "My ex told me that."

"It's true."

Her eyes narrowed. "Well you're an antisocial prick." Ok maybe she did have a death wish after all.

"You're a shallow airhead."

"I am not!" She exclaimed.

He gave her an unimpressed stare. "Look at your handbag."

She gazed at her old bag. The girl had used the item for a few years now and it was beginning to show. It had a small tear in the top and the colours on it were

beginning to fade. She had wanted to purchase a new one for a while now. "What this mungo?"

"If you sold it you could feed a small family for a week," he told her frankly.

He did have a point. "Yeah, well… maybe." He gave a miniature smirk in victory. "That looks kind of good when you do that," she spoke her thoughts aloud before

really registering what she was doing. Her face became bright red. "Oh um, I mean…"

He chuckled. "I guess it's good that I can make you happy," she grumbled.

"I think you're attractive too." Her eyebrows shot up. Did he really just tell her that? He chuckled once more at her shocked expression.

"Thank you," she replied, unsure of how exactly to respond to his statement. "You know you're not as cold and mean as people say you are." Her mouth snapped

shut. There she went again, talking without thinking of the consequences. Didn't her mouth have a filter?

Thankfully, he simply grinned a little. "You're not as much of a shallow bitch as I thought before."

"Why thank you-hey!" She exclaimed, making his grin wider. "You thought I was a shallow bitch?"

He nodded. "A shallow manic bitch that followed Tyler around like a dog."

The brunet did have her on that one. "I can see why you thought that," she admitted. "Especially about the latter part. I really did used to be obsessed with Tyler."

"What happened?"

Caroline inwardly smirked at the fact that he was finally asking her a question. "I dated him," she replied smoothly. "Turns out he was more superficial then what I

had thought before. Also found out that he was a really big asshole. Although I didn't admit it back then, he was like that before I went out with him. I thought it

would change once we started dating. It didn't. He was the one who called me annoying." A small smile appeared on her face. "It was so satisfying to see his face

when I broke up with him. So see? Impressions aren't always right."

They were silent for a few moments. "What was your impression of me?" He asked.

She was a little hesitant before answering. "I thought you were a silent, violent psychopath." To her surprise, he didn't seem to take offense, he simply nodded. "But,"

she continued. "Unlike other people here, I had proof to go off of." He looked at her with a confused expression. She sighed. "Last year, when I was about to walk

home I saw you and another boy by the school dumpster. You had shoved him up against the dumpster and I watched as you gave him a broken nose."

He shut his eyes, as if trying to recall the event. Then his opened, although they were narrower than they were before. "I remember that." She looked at him,

expecting an explanation. "He insulted me and my dead mother." He said abruptly, leaving no room for further questions. But, something about their conversation

was going made Caroline think that maybe, sometime in the future, he would feel comfortable enough around her to go into more detail.

The bell rang for lunch to be over. Caroline scooted up with surprise. She had lost track of time, in fact she had forgotten about the dare altogether. A small smile

appeared on her face. That was way longer than a minute, Elena would know now to mess with her now. And in doing so she had a made a hot new friend in the

process. Her eyes drifted to Stefan, who didn't seem that intent on getting up. "I'll see you around," she told him.

He nodded at her and she strode off with a smile on her face, knowing that that was more acknowledgment then the rest of the student body probably received from

the stoic man. The smile grew when she remembered he called her attractive.

She glanced back one more time at the brunet. Yes, she was actually grateful for the dare Elena gave her. All she had to now was dare the brunette to talk to a

certain lazy genius and they would call it even.


End file.
